Chuukese language
Austronesian language spoken on the Chuuk islands in Micronesia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Chuukese (/tʃuːˈkiːz/), also rendered Trukese (/trʌˈkiːz/),[2] is a Chuukic language of the Austronesian language family spoken primarily on the islands of Chuuk in the Caroline Islands in Micronesia. There are communities of speakers on Pohnpei and Guam. Estimates show that there are about 45,900 speakers in Micronesia.[1]
| Chuukese | |
|---|---|
| Trukese | |
| Chuuk | |
| Native to | Federated States of Micronesia |
| Region | Chuuk |
| Ethnicity | Chuukese |
Native speakers | (51,330 cited 2000 census)[1] |
Austronesian
| |
| Latin script | |
| Official status | |
Official language in |  Federated States of Micronesia |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | chk |
| ISO 639-3 | chk |
| Glottolog | chuu1238 |
Classification
Chuukese is an Austronesian language of the Micronesian subbranch. It is one of the dialects making up the Chuukic subgroup of Micronesian languages, together with its close relatives like Woleaian and Carolinian.[3]
Phonology
Chuukese has the unusual feature of permitting word-initial geminate (double) consonants. The common ancestor of Western Micronesian languages is believed to have had this feature, but most of its modern descendants have lost it.[4]
Truk and Chuuk only differ in orthography, with both older ⟨tr⟩ and current ⟨ch⟩ representing the sound [ʈʂ].
Consonants are doubled in Chuuk when they have a voiceless sound. Some consonant combinations are frequently denasalized between vowels when doubled.[5][6][7]
Orthography
Chuukese is one of the few languages allowing for word initial double consonants:[4]
| Chuukese spelling | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| a | á | e | é | i | o | ó | u | ú | f | ff | s | ss | k | kk | m | mm | mw | mmw | n | ng | nng | p | pp | pw | ppw | r | ch | t | tt | w | y |
| IPA | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ɐ | a | e | ə | i | o | ɑ | u | ɨ | f | fː | s | sː | k | kː | m | mː | mˠ | mˠː | nn̩ | ŋ | ŋː | p | pː | p~b | pː | r | tʂ | t̪ | t̪ː | w | j |
